Monday Munchies- Riverside Grill Shack
Every local neighborhood has their greasy burger joint. They have the fries that you know were dropped in oil that’s been around since Christopher Columbus stumbled into the Americas. The burger buns that were toasted on a grill that was probably made when Harry Truman was president. A place with a milkshake recipe as old as Mother Teresa. In Clarksville, that place was Johnny’s. World renowned for the bun and cream and hamburger steaks as big as your face, Johnny’s was the spot for a late night thousand calorie meal for whenever you needed it. Since moving to East a few years ago, we have our boutique spots like the Pharmacy for a big burger whenever we get a night out, but if we just need a quick stop burger and want to sit outside on a nice summer night, Riverside Grill Shack is the hidden gem that we go to.
When most people think of East Nashville, they immediately gravitate towards Main Street and the Five Points area. Which makes sense, because that’s obviously where the majority of the restaurants, bars, coffee shops that make it on TV shows, call home. Tucked away in the heart of residential east Nashville is where the Grill Shack calls home. An actual little shack, just a bit bigger than your everyday food truck, whips out hundreds of burgers a day to hungry patrons. They use locally sourced grass-fed beef, hand cut their own French fries, and use fresh veggies for the usual burger toppings. My standard order is just the classic burger, add bacon. I’m always much more complimentary of restaurants that use actual bacon, and not that paper-thin stuff you find at fast food joints. I’m sure that you can ask for your burger to be cooked to order, but almost every one that I have had from Riverside has been medium-well, which is my favorite level of doneness. All orders come with fries. For $12, you can be well fed for the rest of the evening quite easily. One thing that I have yet to try is their fry sauces: horseradish ranch (I’ve gotten to where I would try basically anything with horseradish in it), spicy ketchup or honey mustard. Not a big honey mustard guy, but do love the other two options and will need to add those to my next order.
The Classic Burger. You can order with all of the veggies or just do the cheese and bacon. Lots of variations for their burgers.
For you veggie people out there, their other burger option is a veggie burger made with quinoa, black beans, sweet potato, ground flaxseed and Cajun spices. They have three salad options that Hillary has tried out and has said that they’re pretty high quality salads to be coming from a “shack”. On the “not burger” section of the menu they have a couple of grilled cheese choices, one that comes with bacon and then another that has three different cheeses on it (also Hillary approved- my French wife loves her cheese). If you’re not in to red meat, they have wings that you can order as well, varying from 4 to 14 wings, buffalo style, dry rub Old Bay seasoning, or garlic based. And then, of course, they have a few IBC glass bottle soda options to pair with your food of choice to give you that old-time burger joint feel.
The Bacon Bleu Grilled Cheese with fries on marble rye.
Next time you’re in East and don’t feel like dealing with the fifty people waiting for a table at Pharmacy, or don’t want to eat in a bar at The Crying Wolf (they DO HAVE an insane barbeque burger, not hating on that at all), and just want something a bit more conducive to your family being able to sit outside and have a quiet burger while your kids play in the little park area by the outside seating, you should check out Riverside Grill Shack. For the small establishment that they are, they have three hundred Yelp reviews and a 4.5/5 rating. Not too shabby. And holler when you go if you’re looking for someone to go with you! I will never pass up a burger.
SCORE- 6.9/10